Peace Corps Bill and National Assembly Shenanigans

Posted on March 18, 2018

By Ayobami Akanji

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I’m afraid of a military of sheep led by a lion – Alexander the Great

In 1994, a sure Dickson Akoh based a gaggle referred to as the “Nigerian Leadership and Marshall Corps” (NLMC). Because the years passed, he mooted the thought of a name change and, finally, in 1998, he settled for Nigerian Peace Corps, which he registered as a non-governmental organization.

The non-governmental group is modeled after a similarly named volunteer programme in america of America – the Nationwide Peace Corps Affiliation with a volunteer power of 220,000 and yearly finances of $410 million.

Nevertheless, a non- governmental organization, which prides herself as having answer to the menace of employment within the country, is preventing to be taken over by a authorities she registered with to be non-governmental organization.

The purveyors of this Corps typically or delude themselves on the insalubrity of this exercise, neglecting the truth of duplicity of roles that signing the bill into regulation will start. Reading the Peace Corps Bill, one will realise that it has, within the first place, given the game away. It exhibits how the Peace Corps will duplicate the features of seven present organizations, the police and Civil Defence Corps inclusive.

That is sufficient purpose to withhold presidential assent, as no affordable President would take pleasure in superintending over warring security businesses. What’s much more comical is the intense consideration it’s receiving from members of the Nationwide Assembly, who’re conscious of the present financial realities within the nation but would quite play politics with the bill.

All of a sudden, they have realised the risks of unemployment. They have made existential researches into unemployment and as an alternative of creating bills that may assist state governors to take advantage of their natural assets, they brilliantly proffer Peace Corps as the solution. They are saying it can scale back unemployment!

These similar legislators refused to verify nominees into vacant positions within the CBN because the President most popular to maintain the face of a man they do not need to see. In an period where scarce assets are being committed to fill infrastructural deficits, where paying salaries in some states is as arduous as passing a camel by way of the eye of the needle, one wonders if these positionss are indeed patriotic or individualistic.

In any case, a web-based media alleged that some senators got 500 slots in a yet to be confirmed group.

Studying the interview the promoter of the Corps, Mr. Akoh, granted a media home, one realises the financial nightmare the organisation would create for government. He stated not one of the employees is paid lower than N40,000 a month. With a employees power of greater than 113,000, the month-to-month wage invoice can be about N4.5bn, or N50bn annually. This is roughly equivalent to a 3rd of Bauchi State’s N168bn 2018 finances and 1 / 4 of Katsina’s N211bn finances. It’s unexplainable how individuals within the hallowed chambers will permit this invoice to be passed with out scrutinizing the attendant problems.

While unemployment is a matter, you don’t clear up a problem by creating one other. You don’t leap up forgetting that the ground isn’t a pleasant place to land carelessly. It takes so much to build a nation, it takes nothing to destroy it.

The Federal Government is planning to boost the minimal wage in September. Arm-twisting the President into signing this invoice will deny Nigerians the delivery of dividends of democracy. A accountable parliament should help in constructing the nation, not preventing for things that may jeopardize her monetary stability.